I wasn't sure where to post this, but I have a feeling this will be a very visible press item over the next few days:

Nine Dead in California Saga of Incest, Polygamy

FRESNO, Calif. - Marcus Wesson was charged with nine counts of murder Tuesday for allegedly shooting his children in the largest mass killing in city history.

The charges were outlined by prosecutors in a document filed with the court and will be formally read to Wesson at his arraignment Wednesday. Wesson could face the death penalty if convicted because there were multiple murders.

Wesson, 57, shot everyone in his house Friday — a 25-year-old woman and eight children, authorities said. Then he surrendered to police and was being held on $9 million bail.

Police have not disclosed a motive but said that Wesson may have engaged in incest and polygamy. Officers were called to the scene when several of the children's mothers were unable to take their children away from him.

Up until Friday, Wesson appeared to wield absolute authority over his household and his large clan. Then with nine family members shot to death and stacked in a pile behind him, Wesson walked out of his house covered in blood and did something others rarely saw: He gave up control.

The women would walk dutifully behind him in dark robes. They did not speak in his presence. They apparently worked to support him. The children were home-schooled because he did not trust public education. And the little girls — immaculate and wearing dresses — obediently carried the very coffins that may have been intended for them.

Two of Wesson's sons said he was a good father and that the family had been raised as Seventh-day Adventists.

A man who was interviewed by police about Wesson raised the possibility of a motive. Frank Muna, a lawyer who once sold Wesson a house, said police told him Wesson killed his children because he did not want them taken away, as the mothers of two of them had threatened to do.

"He really thinks what he did was right," Muna said.

Neighbors and acquaintances had their suspicions about the man with the burgeoning family and the wild, gray-streaked dreadlocks and beard.

Over the years he led his nomadic clan of women and offspring from a squatter's camp in the mountains to a dilapidated sailboat, and finally to inland California, where he hauled them around in an old school bus.

He was convicted in 1990 of welfare fraud — he had failed to list the boat as an asset — and neighbors often wondered how he fed his family because he never seemed to have a job.

According to Muna, the women wore dark robes and scarves, walked behind Wesson and did not speak when he was present.

Diana Wohnoutka, who lived downhill from Wesson and his children in the early 1980s, said Wesson often spoke about God and his belief that he did not need to work for a living.

"He was definitely strange," Wohnoutka said. "He believed he didn't have to work. God would take care of him. That's how he always preached to us."

At one point, the children were made to sleep on doors that were set on top of sawhorses, she said. Wohnoutka also said Wesson often stopped to chat with her in-laws, leaving his young wife and at least a half dozen children waiting obediently in the hot sun in their small car.

Wesson's wife at the time, Elizabeth, who began having kids in her mid-teens, told Wohnoutka she wanted to stop bearing children but it was against their religion and her husband forbade it. It is unclear where the woman lives now.

As for Wesson's sons, he enrolled them in martial arts and demanded they earn black belts before leaving his watch. The boys said "they had to go through his program," according to martial arts instructor Florian Tan.

Wesson is believed to have fathered children with six women, including two of his own daughters, police said. When Muna first encountered Wesson and sold him a house, he had four women with him and appeared to be intimate with all of them. Neighbors said they all slept in a tool shed behind the house.

Eventually, they fell behind on their payments, and Muna got the house back after suing them. While Wesson was always polite, even when the dispute went to litigation, his behavior became more bizarre and his appearance more disheveled, Muna said.

"A lot of what he was saying wasn't relevant to what we were discussing," Muna said. "He grew that one big, long, nasty dreadlock."

By the time the family landed at the house where the killings took place, Wesson became known for nightly barbecues that sent a smell through the working-class neighborhood that made people gag.

He also raised eyebrows when he bought a dozen mahogany caskets from an antiques store in Fresno, saying he planned to use the wood to repair a boat, said store owner Lois Dugovic.

Wesson left the hand-carved caskets at the shop for nearly a year until the owners asked him to remove them. When he came to collect the boxes, his girls dutifully carried each casket onto his yellow school bus.

"Those girls loaded every one of them in there," Dugovic said. "It was the weirdest thing."

On Monday, three days after authorities removed the bodies from the house, police carried away the caskets as evidence.

_________________________Some boys grow up into men who can look at themselves in the mirror in the morning, and others just go along with the crowd, forgetting after a while that they ever had a choice. ---Roger Ebert

Jesus, what is it with these Seventh Day Adventists? It always seems to be a haven for the worst lunatics, and the SDAs themselves are always trying to filter them out (sometimes more successfully than at other times). David Koresh was involved with them, and so was Rock Thériault.

Quote:Jesus, what is it with these Seventh Day Adventists? It always seems to be a haven for the worst lunatics, and the SDAs themselves are always trying to filter them out (sometimes more successfully than at other times). David Koresh was involved with them, and so was Rock Thériault.

I made the Koresh connection as well while reading that.

And of course, there's no public outcry for what can be genuinelly termed a "Ritual Christian murder".

Once more we see how a useless wastrel who, amongst other things, does not wish to work or adequately support his incestuous, over-sized family uses religion as an excuse for the fact that he is absolutely useless and to underpin his misguided sense of self.

An utterly worthless piece of shit.

_________________________
"u.v.ray blends the dark street poetry of Nelson Algren with the swagger and style of a young Iggy Pop."

Ugh. Rarely do I cringe when simply reading about something, but the saga of Rock Theriault made me avert my eyes from the screen several times. That is undoubtedly the most gruesome true crime story I have ever read. Something about watching your son bleed to death from a failed circumcision, and then cutting off your wife's protracted uterus, made my flesh crawl. It is mind-boggling that a couple of his wives still pay conjugal visits to him in prison.Makes me proud to have French-Canadian blood.

_________________________Some boys grow up into men who can look at themselves in the mirror in the morning, and others just go along with the crowd, forgetting after a while that they ever had a choice. ---Roger Ebert

The most pathetic part of this whole tirade is the fact that not just one but several women chose to carry children spawned by the sperm of this loser. May the herd continue to rot in the squallor they create.

Hrmm Seventh-Day Adventists. How wonderful. I used to be one myself as a youth. I still remember how the David Koresh incident that took place right before I left and how fearful they were that more lunatics could damage there image. Hell they even had a meeting on this. Very Interesting. They are more of the boring breed of Christians out there.. There services always put me to sleep.. lol

What's even worst than this whole thing is the fact that it was made into a movie about a year and a half ago.

Just goes to show how death-driven and obsessed most people are. Not only this digusting "thing" got media attention when it happened (I was about 12 when he was first brought to justice and remember reading the paper's headlines and articles about it), but now they've pushed the enveloppe but making a flick about it.

And if you think it's incredible that women let themselves be treated in such a gruesome way, here's even worse: some of them are STILL loyal to the sick fuck and WAIT for him to come out of jail so they can REJOIN him!

Yes, I was referring to the movie "Moïse: l'affaire Roch Thériault" ("Moses: the R.T. Affair"), with Luc Picard, which won himself a Genie (our equivalent of the Oscar) for his performence in this flick. The movie grossed over a million in only a month of airing, which is incredible around here for a local movie.

Regarding Thériault's status and the conjugal visits...

Thériault's parole was denied as he hasn't submitted to the prescribed therapies that were part of his conditions. He is still considered to be dangerous and a menace to society, even though he is now aged 57, frail, and walks with a cane.

He is up for parole again this year, provided he undergoes and "suceeds" his prescribed therapies (which he probably won't even attend to). Thériault said during his parole review that he was afraid for his life should he be jailed-out.

My guess is that he's quite happy in jail, receiving exactly all he ever cared for: a free lunch without breaking a sweat, booze now and again, etc.

The three women that are still loyal to him (mentionned at the end of the article you linked to) moved to New-Brunswich near the prison he is jailed at. They pay regular and frequent visits to him.

One of these women was interview at the time of the parole hearing, and she commented: "I am a woman and I have hormones (sic)... I am attached to Roch Thériault, not to Moïse."

Source: Radio-Canada news articles from the period (july 2002).

PS: I've attached a picture of Roch Thériault that was taken during his parole review, for those interested in knowing what that piece of shit looks like.

Well, I also met some xtians of this or similar denominations and I've spent some time with them. I belive they're all lunatics.But there are allways the mormons who are worse ...and from what I know abot him, he was more like a mormon than a xtian ...poligamy!?